“Christ as Head of the Church" By Kirk Orelup April 22nd,
2018 Matthew
16:13-18
When Jesus came
into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his
disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I
the Son of
man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist:
some,
Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto
them, But
whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the
Christ,
the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and
blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also
unto
thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church;
and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Shall
we pray for a moment? Lord, Father, we
ask, God, to bless us, to revelate to our minds, our hearts, to
transform our
lives. Let your fullness be manifest in us, in this message, in our
hearts, in
Jesus name. Amen. So, Jesus is
ministering
for three years, intensely. Ministering for three years, and, maybe you
could
look at it as He's making a little progress survey, you know? He stops,
and He
asks, “Who do men say that I am? How am I doing? Who do men say that I
am?”
And, He asked another question as well: “Who do you say that I am?” So,
the
first question, it's the easy one. The second question, it's the hard
one. The
first one, who do men, who do men say that I am? It simply says, “…and
they
said…” It doesn't tell us specifically who said, just, whoever they
were among
the disciples, one said this, one said that; it doesn't say who. They
said.
Because, really, it doesn't matter. For a question like that, a parrot
can
repeat what it's already heard. It doesn't take anything special. So,
they
don't even get an honorable mention for their answer. But, the second
question
is the difficult one. “Who do you say that I am?” So, the first one is
easy,
it's not personable, it doesn't have any personal knowledge required.
The
second one, though, is difficult; that one requires a personal
relationship
with God. And, you remember, Philip had asked a similar question, or he
set
himself up for a similar situation, when he said to Jesus, “Lord, show
us the
father and it's sufficeth us. And Jesus said, “Have I been so long time
with
you and yet, thou has not known me, Philip?” (John 14:8-8) For Philip
to not
know Jesus at that point this ministry was really an insult. It would
be like a
friend of mine, his name is Bryan, and we call each other up, every now
and
then; we have been friends since high school, and, his birthday was
coming up,
and I don't usually do this, but, I said, “Well, I'll send him a card.”
So, I
sent him a card. And, then, a week later, I got a phone call from him;
I
thought he was going to say, “Hey, thanks for the card.” And he said,
“You know
what? After all these years we've known each other, and I can't believe
you
still don't know how to spell my name!” I said, “No, no, I'm spelling
it right;
you're spelling it wrong!” But, you know, that didn't work so well. So,
it's an
insult if you don't know somebody like you should know somebody after
the
years, or the time that you spent together. So, the only way for Peter,
or for
anybody, to get the right answer, was to have a real relationship with
Jesus,
and Peter apparently, knew Jesus. And this is why he was blessed. So,
Jesus
continued: Matthew
16:18 And I
say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I
will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. So, out of
all the people, I don't know how many countless people had seen Jesus,
heard
Jesus, had been healed by Jesus, or whatever He had done, three long
years of
him doing intense ministry, one person, one man answers the question
correctly
and, already, Jesus is building his church. He says, “On this rock I
will build
My Church.” It's like the old adage, or however you call it these days,
the old
maxim, “How do you eat an elephant?” You know, “One bite at a time.”
How do you
build a church? One rock at a time. Okay, that's what He did. He
started with
one. It takes one. But it begins at a personal level, and that's really
the
point. Peter's answer was twofold, first he said that art the Christ.
The word
Christ means anointed, Christ is a specific term that the Jews knew
well. It
meant that He, Jesus, was the King who was prophesied about, who would
establish
His Kingdom on the Earth. Do you know who the very first king of Israel
was?
God was, yeah. Yeah, God was. He was. God was the first king of Israel
and the
people rejected him, and, therefore He appointed Saul as king, and he
was
everything that the people expected and wanted. He was tall, handsome,
stately,
he was kingly. But, he was everything that God hated, because he was
faithless.
God rejected him, and He said that He would put somebody else who would
reign on
the throne forever. Peter identified that that was, that was Christ.
And, He
was the king to sit on that throne. All right. And, we know that,
because He
says, in verse nineteen, “I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom
of
Heaven.” Now, you can't give something unless you own them or possess
them. And,
the King owns the keys to the Kingdom, so He was able to give them to
somebody
else. And, He gave them to Peter, and that means you entrusted Peter to
give
access, or deny access to whomever he will. And that's why it says He
gave you
the keys, and then said “Whatsoever Thou shalt bind on Earth, shall be
bound in
Heaven,” that's access denied. And, “Whatsoever Thou shalt loose on
Earth,
shall be loosed in Heaven,” access granted, okay? The second part of
Peter’s
answer was, “Thou art the Son of the Living God.” This expression is
also an
expression that the Jews knew well. The phrase means God manifest in
flesh.
I'll explain it. In our individualistic society today, we may not fully
appreciate the expression, “Every son is the fruit of the father,” but,
in
Jesus’ day, every son is the fruit of the father. If the father is an
apple,
the son is—? an apple. If the father is
a hamster, the son is—? a hamster, and
the mother smells of elderberries, I think it goes. And, if the Father
is God,
the Son is God. Yet, He is in a body, so Jesus asked, “Who is the son
of man?” referring
to the body, and Peter answered, “He is the Son of God,” referring to
who was
it in that body. So, all men are sons of men, but the Son of God is the
vessel
that contains God. And, Peter understood this, that Jesus was God,
manifest in
the flesh. And, Peter also says, “…Living God.” Of course living means
active,
powerful, efficacious, not inert, lifeless, or dead, as those idols
that people
worshipped, this means He is transforming, He transforms our lives. So,
to tidy
this section up, Jesus is the King, the Kingdom on Earth is the church,
and we
are his rocks that make up His church, and by preaching and baptizing
we grant,
or deny, access to the Kingdom. So, then,
let's go on. So, Jesus being the Son of Man, being in a human body,
He's like
all of us. He has a head; He has a body. Everybody that's living has a
head,
has a body. Being the Son of God, that head, though, was God. Since He
ascended
into Heaven, He remained the head, He remained God, but, what happened
to the
body? Well, the church became his body. We are the vessels that God
dwells in
today, so, He, He abides in us. But, to be the body, for us, He must be
our
head. Oh, we must abide in him. So, the body has to do whatever the
head tells
it to do. And, every member receives instruction directly from the
head, and
responds directly to the Head. Just as every organ must receive and
respond to
the brain. If the brain and the body don't communicate, then the body
is dead,
or it's epileptic, which means it's getting all the different
communications,
and doing all things, and going all places, all at one time, which can
also be
a problem in the church. When Christ is the head, it's alive, and it's
harmonious, and all the head is manifest in the body. All the head is
going to
be manifest in this body. Just as all of God was seen in Christ, all of
Christ
should be seen in His church. Okay, so
let's look at the following verse. It describes this for us in
Colossians, two,
nine through eleven: Colossians
2:9-11
For in him
dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye [I'm going to
read in verse 10] And ye [which means
you and I] are complete in him, which is
the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised
with
the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the
sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ: So, Abby was a
principal, when she was principal of the school, she had all the
authority, the
power that goes with that office. She wasn't all principality and
power,
because she had a school board, or she had a school district, or she
had, you
know, somebody else that she answered to, but Christ is above all
principality,
and had the power that goes with that. And full and complete in this
sentence: “…all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” and “you are complete in Him,”
they are
basically interchangeable words; they mean about the same thing. They
come from
the same root. So, Christ, the fullness of God, in body, that's who He
is. And
now, Christ, as the head of the church, His body contains the same
fullness.
And, this is important, because, we look at the church, and what we
have, what
we do, how we should function, all that we see, and read about in
Christ, we
should then see reflected in the body of Christ, in the church. So, the
church
is just as full in him today as He was in the flesh, if He is the head,
and we
are His body. And, it says again in Ephesians, Ephesians, one,
twenty-two and twenty-three: Ephesians
1:22-23
And hath put all
things under his feet, and gave him to be the
head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of
him that
filleth all in all. So, again,
the body is the fullness of God. The fullness of God that Christ is now
in the
church. The fullness of the one who fills all in all is now in His new
body,
the church. Any restaurant you go to you can place an order you can
order a
small, medium, or large, or all you can eat, right? The endless supply
is the
measure of Christ. And this word measure, we see it comes up quite a
few times
in Ephesians, which we’ll read really soon here. So, it means He's
limitless,
the measure of Christ we know is limitless. So notice the frequency of
words in
the following passage, which is Ephesians four, measure, fullness,
perfection,
the repetition in the use of these words in relating to us, the
correlation
between Christ's fullness and the church. Ephesians
4:7 But
unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the
gift of
Christ. So, according
to what limitation? The fullness of Christ. According to this limitless
measure
of Christ. Ephesians
4:8
Wherefore he saith, When
he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto
men. It was His, as
we said, He ascended, and He gave it to us. What He had, we now have,
just like
the keys to the Kingdom. Okay? Now it goes on: Ephesians
4:9-11
(Now that he
ascended, what is it but that he also descended first
into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also
that
ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) And
he gave [SO, it’s
about to tell us what He gave, and in what measure] some,
apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some,
pastors and teachers; Note the word
“some” here; I'll just point this out quickly, I think: actually,
in the original Greek, it only appears
once in the very, very first time so He gave some Apostles, prophets,
evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And, the word used actually means
like it
is abundantly apparent; truly, verily also can replace that word. So,
it's
like, it's evident this what He has done. And, I believe it was. It was
evident
in the early church that these things were placed, that these five
gifts were
placed in the church. So, verse twelve tells us what it's for: Ephesians
4:12-13
For the
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity
of the
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, [and, now
we're back—it’s talking about knowledge of the Son of God—we're back to
this
revelation that comes from the Father.] unto
a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: So basically
saying we can have the same measure that He has. Ephesians
4:14-16
That we
henceforth be no more children [which would
be immature, or incomplete], tossed to
and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight
of men
[remember who do men say that I am? Not the opinions. That's not what
we're
going to be edified by.], and cunning
craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth
in
love, may grow up [or mature] into
him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole
body [so
we have the head and the body again described] fitly
joined together and compacted… Now when we
talked about fitly joined together and compacted, we're talking about
this
interconnection, this finely-tuned and balanced body. What happens to
one
member affects the other member. You ever see a mobile, a mobile that
hangs,
you see the different ends that extend, and the different parts that
hang below,
and if you take one, and you add a paperclip onto one, everything else
shifts.
So, it's just like that. They all work together, they all balance. When
the
body is perfectly tuned, then the body’s in balance, and without it,
it’s
dysfunctional, it's diseased. The repetition of the measure of fullness
and
perfection of measure. Christ's measure is fullness; therefore, the
church’s
measure is fullness. Christ’s Perfection is now the church’s
perfection. So, what
exactly are these gifts given to the body, and, how do they fill it? It
said it
already, we read it, and He gave, without a doubt, if you will,
Apostles,
prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. If Christ gave these
gifts to the
body, to fill the fullness of the body, then we should be seeing them
in the
body. Correct? So, let's go on. I like how this next verse summarizes
these
functions, I'd love to be able to breakdown each of them. First
Corinthians, twelve,
twenty-seven and twenty-eight. It says: 1
Corinthians
12:27-28 Now ye are the
body of Christ, and members in particular. And God
hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets,
thirdly
teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps,
governments,
diversities of tongues. I had to look
at this verse many times, and, one day, I realized it was actually
talking
about an order of growth. An order of church establishment. It says it,
here, He
had set some in the church, remember we're talking about the church,
and He
said first this, secondarily that, thirdly that, and after that this,
and then
there's that, and so
forth. Okay? Apostles and prophets lay the
foundation. And I always—just consider the Apostles are the ones that
laid the
foundation, but the Apostles and the prophets do it together, and if
you look a
lot of verses you'll find that, and, again, that will have to be saved
for
another topic, another time. But, the prophets, they have been given
the word
of wisdom. And that's what they speak, they speak the word of wisdom.
They are
the mouthpiece of God. And there's another word, call the word of
knowledge,
and that comes through somebody else, which is the thirdly, it comes
through
the teachers. The teacher, when the Apostles and prophets are there and
they are
establishing the churches, there has to be people to come teach people
how to
live their daily life. What happens if we don't teach them to continue
daily in
the Word of God? Then, of course they wither and die. Okay. And, so,
when this
happens, and they're teaching, and they're learning to live their lives
daily
they start to see miracles take place, right? This transformation
starts to
take place where their lives start to change. They were doing one
thing, Ashley
spoke of it, she said, “What was I before? Well, I was lost. But, no,
I'm not
that now. I did these things, but now I'm not doing them.” Okay? Her
life
changed, and if you would look back, I don't know her story, but if you
were to
ever tell us the full story, we would go, “What? Sweet Ashley?” You
know? “What?”
Okay, the miracle working power, miracle and power, actually, are also
interchangeable. Miracle working power to transform, to become the sons
of God.
To them that believe Him, gave He them, power to become the sons of
God. And,
when that transformation takes place, then comes the gifts of... What's
next?
Healings. Physical and spiritual healings start to take place in the
lives of
the people are transforming under the Word of God. Which is next in the
order here,
as it says? And, then it says, then comes helps. Helps is no small
thing,
actually, helps covers a big gambit, a big gambit. Now, the Bible says
the
whole need not a physician, correct? But, if you’re whole, what do you
do? You
help those that are sick. So, the helps is covering all those people
who are
now doing the work of the ministry, because the church has been
established to
the point—the apostles came, the prophets came, the teachers came, you
start to
see the transformation to take place. And, the church is at the point
where the
people, themselves, are whole and transformed, and miracles are
happening, and
they're healed of their spiritual disease, and now they're doing things
to help
others in the church, and we see the gifts of helps. All right, and
this is
what it is. Okay? We are now looking at the people starting to function
as the
body of Christ should be functioning, and this is how we start to see
the fullness
of God manifest in His body. All right? Next thing is what?
Governments. From
that, when we start to see the Miracles in the power of God working
within the
people, we start to then see leadership manifest or emerge, from within
the
church. Governments. You have you got your elders and deacons coming up
out of
the congregation. Okay? And, then it says tongues, diversities of
tongues. And,
this completes the circle because tongues is a sign to whom? The
unbeliever.
Now the church is now reaching outside the church, and starting to
bring them in,
and the cycle continues, and continues, and continues. Okay? So, how is
the
cycle of our church growth today? Are we where we want to be? How does
Bill do
that cricket sound? Like, cue the cricket? All right. We need to ask
ourselves
a question in order to answer this: is Christ our Head? Who do we say
that
Jesus is? And, that ties right back in. If we understand who Jesus is,
and
start to recognize him as the head, and let Him manifest in the body,
we will
see these things happened. So, Christ, as acknowledged in the body must
be
revealed to us by the Father, okay, and this is actually ordination.
God has
set some in the church, we read in Corinthians. So let's look at First
Thessalonians,
five, twelve and—twelve to thirteen. I've got to wrap it up, I guess. 1
Thessalonians 5:12 And
we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you,
and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; Now all five
gifts do admonish, okay? All five gifts. 1
Thessalonians 5:13 And
to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. [And this
work’s sake, it's talking about function.] And
be at peace among yourselves. Now, the
fruit of the whole body effectually working together is peace. That's
what we
have. Can you imagine the church just, I know we have peace, I
appreciate the
peace, I think Ashley almost got choked up over the peace, right? But,
that is
the fruit of the church working together, all the parts manifesting and
working
together within the body as they should. To know them which labor among
you, means
to acknowledge them that labor among you, and it's talking about
eldership,
it's not just saying know who likes anchovies, know who likes
pepperoni, who
likes rap, who likes rock, it really is talking about acknowledge those
that
labor among us. As we see these helps,
to start to identify, “Oh, I see this gift in your life, I see this
gift in
your life.” Okay? So Jesus asked His disciples if they acknowledged
Him, when He
asked, “Who do you say that I am?” And Philip, as we said, “Have you
been so
long with me that thou hast not known me?” And, Ephesians, four, it
says until
we all come into the unity of the faith unto the knowledge of the Son
of God
(Ephesians 4:13), so all these things knowing, acknowledging him. So,
today,
Christ is asking each of us, every one of us, personally, “Who do you
say that
I am?” Will we acknowledge Christ in the fullness in the body of
Christ? Will
we allow the Father to reveal Christ to us, in the form of the
Apostles, prophets,
pastors, evangelist, and teachers? You know He was all these things.
You can
actually look up verse by verse where it says he's an Apostle,
Prophet—it doesn't
say He’s an evangelist; it says He is the Good news.
You know? got that one covered. Okay? And, it
all begins, individually, with personal knowledge; it does come from
revelation
from the Father, so, you have to look and ask yourselves, look at
yourselves
across the table, across the room, who am I looking at? Who is the
apostle? Who
is the prophet? Who is the evangelist? Who is the pastor? Who is the
teacher? Because
God has placed them all within the body. When we start to see it,
acknowledge
it, look for it, let God reveal to us, and revelate to us the power
within this
ministry, what more do you think we'll see happen within the ministry?
I think
so many times we have been guilty of going, “Well, I can't do this, I
can't do
that. Nobody's asked me to do. I'd love to do it, but until somebody
tells me, ‘Go
do it,’ It would be presumptuous of me, I don't want to be proud, you
know?”
And I think we do that. I've certainly done it. And, yet, God is
saying, “No,
I'm in you. I'm giving my fullness to you. And, this is what I need for
the
body to function correctly so that we can now see souls saved.” We want
to see
souls saved; we’ve got to get out there with it. So, I don't
know where I left off. So, is this a salvation issue? Remember
Malcolm's big
question from last Wednesday night, when Bob and Malcolm talk on being
born
again? He said, “Can we love God, and not be baptized?” That was a
tough
question. We also heard crickets, I think, that night. All right? But,
it was a
great question, and we gave a true answer. But that one comment was
made, “But
not all have heard the message?” was asked. Is ignorance acceptable
when Christ
asks “Who do you say that I am?” I would say no. So, can we be saved
without
acknowledging Christ as the Head of the church? Ephesians, five,
twenty-three answers
this well; it says: Ephesians
5:23 For
the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the
church:
and he is the saviour of the body. Like
Malcolm’s answer on Wednesday, the answer isn't always easy to accept,
but the
answer is clear, the only way the body can be saved is by acknowledging
the Head.
Who do you say that Jesus is? Andy, it's you.
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